Assad urged to step down as Syrian peace talks begin

Richard Spencer Montreux

REBELS from Syria's front lines will be represented in peace talks with the Assad regime for the first time in Switzerland today, despite concerns that the opposition is too remote from events on the ground.

The Syrian Revolutionary Front, a new rebel alliance backed by Saudi Arabia, the US and the West, has sworn allegiance to the main political opposition grouping the Syrian National Coalition. The coalition's leader, Ahmed Jarba, will speak at the opening of the conference, appearing in the same room with Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, and other Assad regime representatives.

It will be the first time either side has taken part in peace talks.

The creation of the Syrian Revolutionary Front out of the ashes of the Free Syrian Army, which had been eclipsed by hardline Islamists, represents a diplomatic coup for the US and Saudi Arabia, which were determined to show the side they were backing at the talks was not remote from the people it were supposed to be representing.

GENOCIDE

"There's absolute FSA backing for a political process that leads to tangible results," a source close to the Front said. "The opposition is pursuing a dual track strategy, to protect the Syrian people against Assad's genocide and to prove to the world that we are a legitimate and credible partner in a political process."

However, all sides have poured cold water on any hopes that the talks, which begin in Montreux with statements of position today and move to Geneva for detailed negotiations on Friday, will lead to any concessions or settlement. President Bashar al-Assad, in an interview, described a proposal for a power-sharing agreement as a "good joke".

Iran, Mr Assad's main sponsor, refused to sign up to that proposal, enshrined in the so-called "Geneva 1 Communique" and will not be present.

Western diplomats say they remain determined that Mr Assad must step down for peace to return to Syria, and suggest the most that can be expected is an agreement for localised ceasefires and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Assad also offered a ceasefire in Aleppo and a prisoner exchange.

US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov were due to meet last night, while US president Barack Obama spoke to Vladimir Putin by telephone.

But while the West still hopes that sooner or later Russia will withdraw support from Assad, there is still no indication that this is anywhere near happening. The West comes to the talks armed with new revelations of the regime's brutality after a report by three international prosecutors, which presented photographs and other evidence of the deaths by torture of 11,000 prisoners in Syrian jails, provided by a regime defector.

"This report is extremely alarming, and the alleged scale of the deaths in detention, if verified, is truly horrifying," said a spokesman for Navi Pillay, United Nations human rights commissioner.

Prominent international war crimes experts say they have received a huge cache of photographs documenting the killing of 11,000 detainees by Syrian authorities.

David Crane, one of the three experts, said the cache provides strong evidence for charging president Bashar Assad and others for crimes against humanity - "but what happens next will be a political and diplomatic decision".

In the 55,000 digital images, smuggled out by an alleged defector from Syria's military police, the victims' bodies showed signs of torture, including ligature marks around the neck and marks of beatings, while others show extreme emaciation suggestive of starvation.

The report - commissioned by the Qatar government, one of the countries most deeply involved in the Syrian conflict and a major backer of the opposition - could not be independently confirmed.

"It's chilling; it's direct evidence to show systematic killing of civilians," said Mr Crane, former chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the US had focused too strongly on bringing the warring parties into peace talks at the expense of putting "real pressure" on the Assad government to end atrocities and hold to account those responsible.

The group also accused Russia and China of shielding their ally Syria from concrete action at the UN.